Mundane. Always a good thing.

Why is life always so busy? Chaotic even. With the most mundane things.

Several times a week I remind myself I need to call my Gramma. I love chatting with my Gramma. But often I have to time it right, my Papa and Gramma are well into their golden years, and go to bed really early. By early we mean before 8pm. So I say after dinner I will call.

After dinner. After I clean up dinner. After I supervise homework has been accomplished by the youngest. After I confirm everyone who needs a shower took a a shower. After I run a load of laundry. After I get the kitchen ready - or rather set up the coffee pot for the morning brew. Then I sit down, the clock is just after 8pm.

Then I do finally get my ducks in a row to call. And I can't think of a darn thing to chat about that was exciting. Yet I am ALWAYS busy. (Well, minus the 2 hrs after 9pm where I am wasting my kid free time on the net, or knitting, or reading or glaring at the bank statement after paying bills.) It is all mundane daily activity. Or the crazy that is my life from 2pm to 6pm with taxing kids to and fro with a dinner thrown together and thrown at people. But exciting, it is not.

Now my Gramma, she has gone out with her book club. Hosted a Supper Club dinner - or meal. Hung out with her 'Craft Group' admitting they don't do crafts, they gossip instead. My Papa has gone out with his coffee buddies. He has made his almost daily walks inside the large big box store, and chatted with all the employees.

I ran to Home Depot with my husband. 10 Kinikinik shrubs were purchased. We stopped by Starbucks on the way home. Our youngest had a baseball game, they lost, he did well. All the kids were sick this week. We had 3 doctors appointments. I stopped by the pharmacy 5 times for 7 prescriptions. Everyone is on the mend. Work, and baseball practice commenced. Our week in a nutshell.

Boring.

Would I change my life? Nah.

Well, yeah, I would - can I work fewer hours *grin* for a heck of a lot more money than I make now?

But wouldn't anyone wish that?

Then I would have time to create exciting adventures and humorous stories. Yep. Totally. Wouldn't waste that time reading a book, spending untold hours searching for a new smartphone for under $300.

Parsley Pants review from an almost intermediate sewist.

I did it. I made a pair of pants. Actually I made two. Both are for my youngest son. Our local public school is a uniform school. This year R grew out of size 8..... but 10's are HUGE on him. I contemplated adding cuffs to his older school pants.

Yeah. Those pants won't last long - he is hard on pants.

Parsley Pants by Made by Rae pattern. I have been scouting the web for reviews. No one had any bad things to say about it. I did mull this purchase over as $10 seems a bit high. But size 8- 10 pants for boys are hard to come buy. I really like PDF's of sewing patterns - I find that they are much easier to trace off specific sizes than commercial patterns, and the directions are always better in my experience. And it is a one piece pattern.....terrific. A trip to Joann's. Yeah.

New needles, elastic and some Sew Classic twill fabric on sale for $5.69 a yard. I purchased 2 yards as the pattern directed, but then the clerk offered me the last half yard that was on the bolt for cheap. I agreed.

2.5 yards will get you 2 pairs of size 8 pants plus all the pockets you could want. $12 in fabric = 2 pairs of pants. Sweet. Granted it is not the best fabric - there were some oddly woven spots, but I was able to miss most of them with my layout. Since my fabric was a solid color (non directional) I flipped my pattern piece upside down and wrong side up for the second piece and I was able to get the pants cut side by side on the 44" fabric. (I did wash and dry this fabric before cutting.) Likely I will sew up this pattern again in the next few months, I may try purchasing some twill fabric online for the next pants.

First pair - were straight up Parsley Pants with pouch pockets. (Well I did add the size 9 height to the waistband) Elastic all the way around the waistband. The boy helped sew the pockets together. He says he likes the pants and will wear them to school. I think they need a touch more room in the hip for easy on off action - but I am not sure how to accomplish this. Hmm.

Second pair made the next day. I drafted different pockets as the husband thought the original were kind of odd. I traced out a straight size 8 for the pants. Waist band was turned under 1/2 inch then folded over another 1.5 inches and sewn. These I made with a flat front. It took two tries. I ended up using the recipe for the elastic the pattern called for 12.25 inches....but had to attach it at the pocket sides in order for the pants to fit my little guy. I did sew the crotch inseam closer to 3/8 inch than the half inch the pattern calls for. Trying to get a bit more room in the upper portion of the pants.

Pictures to follow....you know when its not past the kid's bedtime, and there is some real light. :)

Joining the ranks

Yep.

Doing a blog

Who knows where it will lead. I have Willy Wonka's movie in mind (thank you TV show Finders). Who knows if I will even tell people I have a blog. :) It may be about life, cooking, complaining, wishing, hoping and excitement. Or it may just be a list of accomplishments and subsequent failures. You never know what life is going to throw at you.

And how the heck am I going to spell check this? Off to hunt. Found it. Oh and I added a picture, yes of an ice cream cake. So? It has flames. Maybe I am trying to channel some summer time weather my way.